Euhemerism is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exaggerated in the retelling, accumulating elaborations and alterations that reflect cultural mores, it was named for the Greek mythographer Euhemerus, who lived in the late 4th century BC. In the more recent literature of myth, such as Bulfinch's Mythology, euhemerism is termed the "historical theory" of mythology. Euhemerus was not the first to attempt to rationalize mythology in historical terms: euhemeristic views are found in earlier writings including those of Xenophanes, Hecataeus of Abdera and Ephorus. However, the enduring influence of Euhemerus upon thinkers such as the classical poet Ennius and modern author Antoine Banier identified him as the traditional founder of this school of thought. In a scene described in Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates offers a euhemeristic interpretation of a myth concerning Boreas and Orithyia: Socrates illustrates a euhemeristic approach to the myth of Boreas abducting Orithyia.

He shows how the story of Boreas, the northern wind, can be rationalised: Orithyia is pushed off the rock cliffs through the equation of Boreas with a natural gust of wind, which accepts Orithyia as a historical personage. But here he implies that this is equivalent to rejecting the myth. Socrates, despite holding some euhemeristic views, mocked the concept that all myths could be rationalized, noting that the mythical creatures of "absurd forms" such as Centaurs and the Chimera could not be explained. In the ancient skeptic philosophical tradition of Theodorus of Cyrene and the Cyrenaics, Euhemerus forged a new method of interpretation for the contemporary religious beliefs. Though his work is lost, the reputation of Euhemerus was that he believed that much of Greek mythology could be interpreted as natural or historical events subsequently given supernatural characteristics through retelling. Subsequently Euhemerus was considered to be an atheist by most notably Callimachus. Euhemerus' views were rooted in the deification of men kings, into gods through apotheosis.

In numerous cultures, kings were exalted or venerated into the status of divine beings and worshipped after their death, or sometimes while they ruled. Dion, the tyrant ruler of Syracuse, was deified while he was alive and modern scholars consider his apotheosis to have influenced Euhemerus' views on the origin of all gods. Euhemerus was living during the contemporaneous deification of the Seleucids and "pharaoization" of the Ptolemies in a fusion of Hellenic and Egyptian traditions. Euhemerus argued that Zeus was a mortal king who died on Crete, that his tomb could still be found there with the inscription bearing his name; this claim however did not originate with Euhemerus, as the general sentiment of Crete during the time of Epimenides of Knossos was that Zeus was buried somewhere in Crete. For this reason, the Cretans were considered atheists, Epimenides called them all liars. Callimachus, an opponent of Euhemerus' views on mythology, argued that Zeus' Cretan tomb was fabricated, that he was eternal: A Latin scholium on the Hymns of Callimachus attempted to account for the tomb of Zeus.

According to the scholium, the original tomb inscription read: "The tomb of Minos, the son of Jupiter" but over time the words "Minos, the son" wore away leaving only "the tomb of Jupiter". This had misled the Cretans into thinking that Zeus was buried there. Influenced by Euhemerus, Porphyry in the 3rd century AD claimed that Pythagoras had discovered the tomb of Zeus on Crete and written on the tomb's surface an inscription reading: "Here died and was buried Zan, whom they call Zeus". Varro wrote about the tomb of Zeus. Hostile to paganism, the early Christians, such as the Church Fathers, embraced euhemerism in attempt to undermine the validity of pagan gods; the usefulness of euhemerist views to early Christian apologists may be summed up in Clement of Alexandria's triumphant cry in Cohortatio ad gentes: "Those to whom you bow were once men like yourselves." The Wisdom of Solomon, a deuterocanonical book, has a passage, Wisdom 14:12–21, giving a euhemerist explanation of the origin of idols.

The early Christian apologists deployed the euhemerist argument to support their position that pagan mythology was an aggregate of fables of human invention. Cyprian, a North African convert to Christianity, wrote a short essay De idolorum vanitate in AD 247 that assumes the euhemeristic rationale as though it needed no demonstration. Cyprian begins: That those are no gods whom the common people worship, is known from this: they were kings, who on account of their royal memory subsequently began to be adored by their people in death. Thence temples were founded to them. Thence to posterity those rites became sacred, which at first had been adopted as a consolation. Cyprian proceeds directly to the apotheosis of Melicertes and Leucothea. "The cave of Jupiter is to be seen in Crete, his sepulchre is shown," Cyprian says, confounding Zeus and Dionysus but showing that the Minoan cave cult was still alive in Crete in the third century AD. In his exposition, it is to Cyprian's argument to marginalize the syncretism of pagan belief, in order to emph

The tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand, the only species in the genus Prosthemadera. It is one of the largest species in the diverse Australasian honeyeater family, one of two living species of that family found in New Zealand, the other being the New Zealand bellbird; the tui has a wide distribution in the archipelago, ranging from the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, as well as the main islands. The bird's common name tui comes from the Māori language; the plural is ngā tūī in Māori usage. Early European colonists mockingbird; the tui is 27 to 32 cm in length. The Chatham Islands subspecies is larger on average than the nominate subspecies, heavier. Males tend to be heavier than females. Nominate males weigh between 65–150 g, females 58–105 g. Males of the Chatham subspecies are 89 -- females 89 -- 170 g. At first glance the bird appears black except for a small tuft of white feathers at its neck and a small white wing patch, causing it to resemble a parson in clerical attire.

On closer inspection it can be seen that tui have brown feathers on the back and flanks, a multicoloured iridescent sheen that varies with the angle from which the light strikes them, a dusting of small, white-shafted feathers on the back and sides of the neck that produce a lacy collar. Tui are found through much of New Zealand the North Island, the west and south coasts of the South Island, Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands—where an endangered sub-species particular to these islands exists. Other populations live on Raoul Island in the Kermadecs, in the Auckland Islands. Populations have declined since European settlement as a result of widespread habitat destruction and predation by mammalian invasive species. Nonetheless, the species is considered secure and has made recoveries in some areas after removal of livestock has allowed vegetation to recover. Predation by introduced species remains a threat brushtail possums, the common myna, rats. Tui prefer broadleaf forests below 1500 metres, but will tolerate quite small remnant patches, exotic plantations and well-vegetated suburbs.

They are one of the most common birds found in urban Wellington. They are seen singly, in pairs, or in small family groups, but will congregate in large numbers at suitable food sources in company with silvereyes, bellbirds, or kererū in any combination; when interspecific competition for the same food resources among New Zealand's two species of honeyeater occurs, there is a hierarchy with the tui at the top bellbirds subordinate to tui above them—they are thus chased off by tui at a food source such as a flowering flax plant. Male tui can be aggressive, chasing all other birds from their territory with loud flapping and sounds akin to rude human speech; this is true of other tui when possession of a favoured feeding tree is impinged. Birds will erect their body feathers in order to appear larger in an attempt to intimidate a rival, they have been known to mob harriers and magpies. The powered flight of tui is quite loud as they have developed short wide wings, giving excellent maneuverability in the dense forest they prefer, but requiring rapid flapping.

They can be seen to perform a mating display of rising at speed in a vertical climb in clear air, before stalling and dropping into a powered dive repeating. Much of this behaviour is more notable during the breeding season of early spring—September and October. Females alone build nests of twigs and mosses. Nectar is the normal diet but fruit and insects are eaten, pollen and seeds more occasionally. Popular is the New Zealand flax, whose nectar sometimes ferments, resulting in the tui flying in a fashion that suggests that they might be drunk, they are the main pollinators of flax, kaka beak and some other plants. Note that the flowers of the three plants mentioned are similar in shape to the tui's beak—a vivid example of mutualistic coevolution. Tui have complex variety of calls, much like parrots, they resemble parrots in their ability to imitate human speech, were trained by Māori to replicate complex speech. Tui are known for their noisy, unusual call, different for each individual, that combine bellbird-like notes with clicks, timber-like creaks and groans, wheezing sounds.

Songbirds have two voice boxes and this is what enables them to perform such a myriad of vocalisations. Tui song exhibits geographical, seasonal and individual variation; some of the wide range of tui sounds are beyond the human register. Watching a tui sing, one can observe gaps in the sound when the beak is agape and throat tufts throbbing. However, ongoing research has so far failed to detect ultrasound within tui vocalisations. Tui will sing at night around the full moon period. Fruit-eating birds, tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae TerraNature | New Zealand ecology Prosthemaderas Novæ Zealandiæ — From A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller T

Charles Rufus Reed is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 64th Mayor of San Jose, California from 2007 to 2014. Reed was born in Kansas. Reed attended Garden City High School and helped the school win a state championship in basketball in 1966, he joined the United States Air Force in 1970 after attending the United States Air Force Academy. At the Academy, he graduated number one in his class and served as cadet wing commander, the highest position a USAFA cadet can achieve. Reed was only the 9th person in the history of the United States Air Force Academy to max out on the Physical Fitness Test. While in the Air Force, Reed attended Princeton University and received a Master's Degree in Public Affairs. During the Vietnam War, he served in Thailand, he left the Air Force in 1975, having reached the rank of Captain, attended Stanford Law School where he earned a J. D. degree in 1978. After passing the bar, Reed began work as a private attorney, he specialized in environmental, land use and real estate law, commercial litigation.

Reed is married with two children. His daughter, Colonel Kim Campbell, joined the Air Force and was number one in her class at the Air Force Academy. Reed and his daughter were the first father and daughter to both graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and become Cadet Wing Commanders. Kim flew combat missions in an A-10 Warthog over Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and swore him into office at his inauguration, his son, Alex, is a graduate of Santa Clara University. Starting in the 1980s and continuing to 2000, Reed served on numerous commissions and committees including the City Planning Commission and the San Jose Downtown Association. Reed was elected to a seat on the San Jose City Council from the Berryessa District in 2000, he was re-elected with 86 % of all the votes cast. While on the San Jose City Council, Reed was known for being the lone dissenter in many votes, he was thought to be the most outspoken critic of the status quo on the council and voted against many noteworthy agenda items.

In 2005, with the incumbent mayor, Ron Gonzales, term-limited out, Reed announced his plan to run for Mayor of San Jose. In the mayoral primary held on June 6, 2006, in a crowded field of ten candidates, Reed won 28.8% of the vote, putting him in the mayoral run-off election held on November 7, 2006 against San Jose Vice-Mayor Cindy Chavez who received 23.17% of the vote. Michael Mulcahy received 10.74%, Dave Cortese received 16.37%, David Pandori received 17.86%. In the mayoral runoff election held on November 7, 2006, Reed won a solid victory over Chavez who conceded the race just before midnight. Final tallies show Reed garnered 117,394 votes to Chavez's 80,720. During the Mayoral campaign, Reed was criticized in a series of attack ads by Chavez and Labor Unions for getting reimbursed for various expenses that he had as a council member from his office fund, he repaid the funds when the issue hit the media and apologized to the public for any sense of wrongdoing. The funds in question were all approved by the City Clerk's Office and in an October 2006 City Council meeting, City Clerk, Lee Price, stated that the reimbursements did not violate City law and was common practice among the City Council offices.

Regardless, early in his administration, Reed had the City Clerk's Office produce a more detailed explanation for approved uses and restricted uses. Reed put together a 67-member transition committee to aide his transition staff in policy issues. Assisted by Transition Team Co-Chairs former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery and Victor Ajlouny, Reed hosted publicly held meetings where many policy issues were discussed; the subcommittees for the transition included Jobs & the Economy, Education, Public Safety, Government Reform and Ethics. Reed was inaugurated as the 64th Mayor of San Jose on Tuesday, January 9, 2007. At his inauguration, he promised "no lying, no cheating, no stealing." This added. Reed pushed many of his 34 Reed Reforms, including focusing on outreach efforts to get the community involved in the budget process. Chuck Reed has gained many nicknames during his tenure in office including "Mr. Integrity", "the Anti-Ron Gonzales", "Captain America" due to his habit of sporting the American Flag.

On October 11, 2007 at a meeting with more than 100 Silicon Valley CEOs, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to Reed as the "Green Mayor" because of Reed's environmental priorities. Mayor Reed announced his Green Vision for San Jose in October 2007; the Green Vision is a comprehensive environmental guide for San Jose over the next 15 years, setting 10 goals. The Green Vision was adopted by the San Jose City Council on October 2007 in an 11-0 vote. Mayor Reed aims to bring 25,000 clean tech jobs to San Jose and attracted Tesla Motors and several solar power companies to the city in 2008, he attributes his progress so far to "moving at the speed of business" and streamlining procedures. One city approval process was reduced from 3–6 months to one hour." Mayor Reed launched his bid for re-election on December 10, 2009. He pledged to keep positioning the city as a center of "clean tech" innovation. Reed was re-elected to a second term in a landslide on June 8, 2010. Reed won the election with or 76.7 %, against three challengers.

His nearest opponent, Thomas Nguyen, placed second with just 9,016. Susan Barragan placed third with 7,573 votes. List of mayors of the largest 50 US cities City of San Jose Web site Fresh Dialogues interview January 2009, Mayor's tacti